Spring Break
Cartoon shows out-of-control racial sensitivity
Megan Lynch
Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: Commentary
Has anyone finalized his or her plans to assassinate President Obama yet? It has been an entire week since the New York Post printed that comic based on the chimpanzee attack in Stamford, showing an ape dead on the ground with two police officers saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." By now, every Republican and Caucasian must be under the subliminal influences propagated by such racist drawings and in the process of purchasing a gun to shoot our new president. And it's obviously because Obama is black.
I don't know about you, but I do not understand how this one cartoon got so out of control, becoming more evidence for racism against blacks. While it is obvious that the cartoon is about Obama, the event depicted was a real situation that resulted in a dead chimpanzee and a harmed victim. As for the reference to the stimulus bill, that is all America has heard about for weeks, so of course it is going to make its way into comics. Personally, I still see no implications of racism other than the ape in the picture looking a little darker than the police officers do.
However, the cartoon itself is a bit crude, but aren't all the best political cartoons? If each picture isn't bold enough to grasp your attention, no one is going to read them and laugh - and subsequently, no one is going to think about them. It's not as if the cartoonist drew Obama with bullet wounds in his chest; it was just the ape.
It's pretty much common knowledge that ,when you run for presidential office, there will be monkey cartoons - many, many monkey cartoons. Just look at George Bush. While nobody really had any sympathy for the former president, they still had time to draw monkey cartoons about him. About.com has a whole section of political cartoons just for Monkey Bush, with at least three for each of Bush's facial expressions. One even pictures Bush as a monkey reading "The Origin of Species," which I actually happen to find offensive, but the lynch mob I hired to go after that cartoonist had to postpone.
I don't know about you, but I do not understand how this one cartoon got so out of control, becoming more evidence for racism against blacks. While it is obvious that the cartoon is about Obama, the event depicted was a real situation that resulted in a dead chimpanzee and a harmed victim. As for the reference to the stimulus bill, that is all America has heard about for weeks, so of course it is going to make its way into comics. Personally, I still see no implications of racism other than the ape in the picture looking a little darker than the police officers do.
However, the cartoon itself is a bit crude, but aren't all the best political cartoons? If each picture isn't bold enough to grasp your attention, no one is going to read them and laugh - and subsequently, no one is going to think about them. It's not as if the cartoonist drew Obama with bullet wounds in his chest; it was just the ape.
It's pretty much common knowledge that ,when you run for presidential office, there will be monkey cartoons - many, many monkey cartoons. Just look at George Bush. While nobody really had any sympathy for the former president, they still had time to draw monkey cartoons about him. About.com has a whole section of political cartoons just for Monkey Bush, with at least three for each of Bush's facial expressions. One even pictures Bush as a monkey reading "The Origin of Species," which I actually happen to find offensive, but the lynch mob I hired to go after that cartoonist had to postpone.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
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posted 2/25/09 @ 11:27 AM EST
This cartoon was incredibly racially insensitive. The problem was not that they were comparing the president to a monkey, or showing violence being done to the president in the cartoon that was wrong. (Continued…)
Frank Smith
posted 2/25/09 @ 12:46 PM EST
Megan, you are a young, naive, little girl who I'm assuming was raised in a predominantly white middle-to-upper-middle class neighborhood. Maybe you feel that you understand what African American's have gone through because you listened to hip-hop lyrics or watched a Tyler Perry movie. (Continued…)
Mike
posted 2/25/09 @ 7:13 PM EST
I have spent a fair amount of time defending the cartoonist from racist charges. It is easy for me because I saw the cartoon and it's accompanying monkey, and never thought about Obama or his color. (Continued…)
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